Rustic log cabin furniture or rustic Americana was originally intended to be an inexpensive and practical solution for rustic retreats.
Popular around the turn of the 20th century, primitive log cabin furniture was used in resorts, camps and the second home retreats or rustic lodges of the wealthy.
However, in recent years, log cabin furniture has been recognized for its artistic and collectible value. It is now recognized as a craft and a form of primitive art.
Rustic Cabin Furniture
Take Your Log Home to the Next Level
A log house is not a home—until you make it one! How do you do that? Well, you put yourself and your personality into the furnishings and decorations in your home.
Your home should reflect what you love, and what you love to do. Log cabin furniture, casual by design, will help you do that. Guests who visit you, should instinctively feel that your home “is you”.
- Amish Log Furniture – The Amish have a reputation for building quality, handcrafted furniture, like their infamous bent wood rocking chairs. Even today, Amish furniture is handmade in small Amish barns and with strict standards for construction. The Amish take pride in their work, and they deliver quality log cabin furniture.
- Log Bedroom Furniture – Your bed is the central feature of your rustic log cabin bedroom. And there are quite a few log bed styles to consider, some basic and some more complex.
- Rustic Bedroom Furniture – While log furniture is very popular in log and timber homes, there are other styles that give your home rustic appeal, as well. Reclaimed barn wood furniture, furniture with rustic carvings or metal silhouettes, and furniture with twigs or antlers are all very fashionable in rustic homes.
21st Century Cabin Furniture
Rustic log cabin furniture is popular today because many see the intrinsic beauty of its craft.
Designs weave natural materials like logs, branches, twigs and sometimes antlers or horns into furnishings. And each piece is a unique design, like no other!
Does everyone fall in love with rustic log cabin furniture? Absolutely not. It seems that people either like it or they don’t.
People who appreciate the qualities of rustic furniture also appreciate the beauty of nature. They often seek to bring the natural world around them, into their homes.
Your choice of furnishings will make or break the look of your log home.
Cabin Furniture in Bedrooms
Bedroom furniture made from logs is used most often in log cabins and log homes. However, it can also enhance the interiors of timber framed homes or post and beam homes.
Log furniture for the bedroom is no longer like the handcrafted log furniture that your great-grandfather made. Historically, log furniture was crude, simple and straight from the woods to the bedroom.
Today you’ll find beautiful bedroom pine log furniture, cedar log furniture and aspen log furniture. Some is very simple in design and some has lovely carvings and beautiful inlays.
We also see matching or contrasting dressers and end tables with decorations that go with your theme!
Note the beautiful chain saw bear carvings in this design. Truly unique, it is a conversation starter.
If you’ve decided to use log furniture in your bedroom, you need to choose your bed first, as everything in the room will be secondary to your log bed.
Depending on how rustic you want your room to be, you have many additional options:
- Log bed furniture with carvings – You’ll find interesting carvings of bears, trees, deer, and pine cones. Often you can choose a matching dresser or end table to go with your bed.
- Headboard with metal scene – You can bring a lovely outdoor scene into your bedroom with this type log bed
- Carved slate headboard – with a rustic outdoor scene.
- Antlers – integrated into the design.
- Wrought iron railings – An interesting feature that you might like
- Traditional log bed – Very similar to antique log beds that you may have seen.
Build Your Bedroom around the Bed
When outfitting your log home bedroom:
First choose a rustic theme for your master suite, your guest room and children’s rooms.
Next choose your log bed, which will be the center of attention in your room. For the kids’ rooms or your bunk room, there are cool log bunk beds that are more fun than anything we slept in, as kids.
Finally, choose log accessories like rustic tables, chests, benches and dressers to complete your rustic bedroom decor.
Log Home Bedroom Accents
To help round out your country bedroom retreat, you’ll also want to select cabin rugs and country comforters that help pull your room together.
Blanket or cedar chests give you a sensible way to store out of season bedding, and rustic benches or decorative chairs afford a place to sit while donning your socks and shoes.
You can dress your room up or down—depending on whether you are decorating an elegant rustic lodge or a small rustic weekend or hunting cabin. And of course, everything in between!
Rustic Log Cabin Furniture for a Bedroom
When you choose cabin bedroom furniture, you’ll be amazed at your choices in rustic log beds, night stands, dressers, and armoires.
Choose log bedroom furniture accessories to complement your log bed and other furniture.
Rustic log furniture is not limited to a single wood. You will find log bedroom sets in pine, cedar, hickory, aspen and even re-purposed barn wood.
Since your bedroom is truly your most private space, and it is indeed your retreat, why not spend a little time to outfit your master suite with special rustic furnishings?
Choose log bedroom furniture accessories to complement your log bed and other furniture.
This beautiful blanket chest is made of recovered barnwood, with logs at the corners. The pine tree carvings make it even more special!
Cabin Furniture Construction
Log bedroom furniture often has logs built into it, especially on the corners. When choosing accessories for your bedroom, look for straight logs and strong joinery.
However, if the logs are decorative (as in a rustic bed), they can have interesting twists and shapes, to add rustic appeal.
Artisans join rustic log furniture with notches built into the logs, with pegs, or with metal fasteners that are not visible on the outside.
Log furniture is handcrafted and it is often a very high quality of workmanship.
Wood Used in Rustic Log Furniture
Pine Log Furniture
By far your most economical wood choice for log cabin furniture, pine log furniture is common. Two kinds of pine are used in log furniture: lodge pole pine and knotty white pine. White pine is grown in the northern U.S., and lodge pole pine is grown in the western U.S.
While white pine is a strong wood, southern yellow pine is pithy and lacks strength. Color wise, white pine is a creamy white when new, and it develops a yellow patina as it ages.
You can find cabinets, furniture, knotty pine paneling, tongue and groove wood planking and small accessories made from white pine.
White pine is not as sensitive to moisture content as other woods, and it does not swell or shrink a lot when humidity changes. Furniture made from white pine does not bend and warp easily, with temperature fluctuations and high humidity.
Pine log furniture looks fantastic in a rustic bedroom.
Lodge Pole Pine
Lodge pole pine gets it name from its use in Native American tee pees or lodges. Typically a teepee had 15-18 lodge pole pines in its structure.
The native Americans used these pines because they are straight, easy to transport, and relatively thin. In coastal areas of the northwestern U.S. and Canada, there are bent pines, as well.
Cedar Log Furniture
The rich color variances in cedar–along with the delicious aroma and natural pest-repellent properties–make cedar an excellent choice if you’re looking for a log bedroom set with dramatic flair.
In fact, you can even have a house built with cedar logs. They do cost a little more, but some people prefer cedar to other kinds of logs.
And cedar log furniture has a special appeal to many people.
Aspen Log Furniture
Aspen wood is noted for its pale silvery and golden amber hues, making it an interesting choice for your log furniture. You will find that aspen wood often serves as an interesting contrast with your log walls and wood floors.
No matter what wood you choose for your log bedroom furniture, your furniture will be solid and comfortable—and it will have you “sawing logs” in style!
Bedroom Furniture without Logs
Rustic bedroom furniture, made of reclaimed barn wood, hickory, oak or pine, can give you the casual elegance or hunting camp simplicity that you want for your cabin. Without logs.
Let’s face it. Not everyone wants log furniture. Fortunately there are a number of great alternatives, keeping the rustic theme, without the bulky look of logs.
And the bedroom, your private domain, is where you can use your imagination, to create a special romantic retreat…
Types of Rustic Furniture
Depending on the look that you want, there are many styles of rustic furniture that will go well in your cabin decor.
- Adirondack furniture – Adirondack furniture can use bent twigs or branches, geometric designs or even a painted scene on the bed headboard or the side of a dresser or night table.
- Furniture with carvings – Carvings are found in all types of rustic wood furniture. Wood carvings can help to pull your theme together in the room.
- Rustic iron furniture – Just as antiques work well in a rustic cabin or lodge, rustic iron furniture does also. You may find a bed headboard or an entire bed made entirely from rustic iron.
- Antler furniture – Yes, you can find furniture that has artistically incorporated antlers into it. Often antlers are found in the headboard or foot board of a bed, but you may also find them in other rustic furniture pieces, too.
- Log furniture – Log furniture is perhaps the most traditional rustic bedroom furniture. Some pieces are very simple, but log furniture can also have details like hand carved animals or pine cones, as well.
- Metal art silhouette furniture – Often painted black, metal silhouettes like bears, deer, moose, trees and pine cones are often used on rustic furniture for the bedroom. You may find dressers, chests or night tables with silhouettes that match the figures on your headboard.
- Southwest furniture – often hand painted, this type of furniture has geometric designs that mirror American Indian designs.
- Amish furniture – noted for its quality, Amish furniture is usually fairly simple in design. Amish furniture can be handcrafted and have finely made joints. It comes in different woods, and you may be able to order custom made pieces.
Woods Used in Rustic Bedroom Furniture
Some woods have a more rustic informal look, while others have a more formal polished look. Here are some of the woods that are more rustic and work well in a country lodge or cabin:
Pine bedroom furniture
Pine, of course, is an old standby. It’s a relatively common and inexpensive wood. Pine is a relatively soft wood. If your first priority is economy, you might consider looking for rustic pine furniture with simple lines.
Oak bedroom furniture
A hard wood, oak takes on rustic qualities, with the right style. Shaker furniture is simple in design and is often made in oak. And reclaimed barnwood is often oak. So in addition to getting a pretty piece with a patina, a reclaimed oak board is long lasting, beautiful and wears well.
Hickory Furniture
Hickory is quite informal and it is quite rustic. Natural hickory has wild patterns and colors vary dramatically from piece to piece. Hickory darkens with age. If you choose hickory bedroom furniture, remember that natural (no stain) wood will give you the most dramatic effect.
Barnwood Furniture
Remember the barn wood fad during the 1970s? It was quite fashionable for people to use barn wood to refinish their recreation rooms.
Well, barn wood is still “in”—but this time in rustic wood furniture. Just like the barn wood used in people’s recreation rooms, it is often oak wood that is reclaimed from barns.
Alder Furniture
Alder wood has a lot of knots, and it often is finished to have lovely red tones. It looks great in a Western or Southwestern decor.
Cedar Furniture
Cedar has white and red tones in it. Consider using cedar to contrast with other furniture pieces. If your bedroom furniture has aromatic cedar drawer bottoms, you can bring the lovely scent of aromatic cedar into your home.
Lodge pole and Knotty Pine
Rustic pine furniture, with its natural variations, is the perfect complement to the decorating projects in your log cabin or timber home.
Pine furniture is popular, partly because of our desire to live closer to Nature and partly because it is an artistic form of folk art. It is traditional and its history goes back to the beginning of our country.
Use pine furniture in your rustic home to give you lots of options. Rustic pine furniture blends in well with your beloved antiques and favorite heirlooms.
As you can see, you have dozens of styles and woods to choose from, and you can achieve just about any look that you’d like in your rustic log home.
Why Decorate with Pine Cabin Furniture?
Furniture made from pine logs is sturdy and rugged. It is unmistakably rustic. And, in addition, pine furniture you will naturally distress it, over time. Because of the wood’s soft nature, it gets little indentations and small marks, with normal use.
Quality pine furniture is made from solid kiln-dried lodge pole pine or knotty pine wood. Furniture craftsmen do not use fiberboard or laminates.
Made by hand, this furniture has a unique high end appearance. Yet it is comfortable, with a cozy down-home look and feeling.
Use pine log furniture in rooms where you want to feel like you are in a rustic retreat, at camp for the summer, or in a weekend getaway…
Where Would You Use Pine Cabin Furniture?
Rustic pine furniture complements most cabin themes.
In addition, rustic style furniture, with its handcrafted appearance, makes your home truly unique. Each piece will vary slightly from the others in color and finish.
Pine Furniture Options
Include rustic pine in your home:
- Rustic Pine Coffee Table – Pine coffee tables, because they are not as hard a wood as others, will take on a used, distressed and rustic look, after a few years of use.
- Pine End Tables – Cute little pine end tables can be used in the living room beside chairs or a sofa. Or they can be used as bed tables, beside the beds in your bedrooms.
- Living Room Furniture – Choose a few pieces of well-chosen pine living room furniture to create a distinctive and rustic great room.
- Rustic Dining Room Tables – Select your dining room furniture to complement the other rustic furniture in your home. Log homes don’t need fancy dining room tables and chairs.
- Rustic Dresser – A rustic dresser works in any room of a log or timber home. Use a dresser in a large bathroom for storage, in the kitchen or dining room for linens, in the great room for DVDs or for board games. And, of course, your bedrooms are a great place for a cute rustic dresser.
- Log Bedroom Furniture – Pine log bedroom furniture goes well in any log cabin, lodge, timber frame, or post and beam home.
So, if you are looking for a natural, rustic and handcrafted look for the furniture in one of your home decorating projects, consider using a piece or two of rustic pine to enhance the rich style of your home.
Amish Log Furniture
Rustic Cabin Furniture Built To Last
Handcrafted, using traditional woodworking techniques, Amish craftsmen make log furniture, much the same way it was made, a hundred years ago.
Log furniture made by the Amish, is popular in log and timber homes. It complements other rustic furniture nicely.
Amish log furniture is simple in design. Purchase it in many different woods, including cedar, pine, walnut, aspen and hickory.
Amish families, hand down the cedar log furniture of the family home, as heirlooms, through generations. And that is true for “English” families (the word the Amish use for those who are not Amish), as well.
Your rustic log bench may have begun as a large log like this one.
Amish children watch the Amish men while they work.
Because Amish artisans to make high quality handcrafted furniture, we trust them. People who live in states like Pennsylvania or Ohio, know Amish craftmanship well.
Amish log furniture is strong, durable and often massive. And there are many kinds of log furniture to choose from.
Your choice of log furniture is limited only by your imagination. And by the Amish furniture that you are able to find in your area.
Buying Amish Cabin Furniture
The Amish are very private people and they have very strict rules about what they can and can’t do.
Amish often do not have phones and they often don’t have cars. The rules are specific to each Amish community, so you can’t make broad generalizations.
If you’re not Amish yourself (really, how many Amish are online?), you might have a hard time buying directly from the craftsman.
Sometimes you can find Amish pine log furniture or cedar log furniture in shops in small towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana or Michigan.
Amish retail shops use propane for heat (Sorry, no air conditioning) and light, and they are never open on Sundays.
If you are lucky enough to find an Amish furniture shop, it will be very simple. No frills, no elaborate displays–just the furniture, quilts and other handmade items that are being sold.
Your Dog’s Cabin Furniture
Log dog beds are the perfect complement to the rustic cabin furniture in your log or timber home. And many of these pet beds offer cushy comfort, as well.
Log beds for dogs come in a number of different woods and styles. You can choose from lodge pole pine or cedar, and, in more contemporary designs, you can find ash or sustainable bamboo dog beds.
How Will Your Dog Bed Look?
Choose a dog bed that complements your rustic decor. You can mix and match kinds and colors of wood. So you can pick a dog bed that either matches or contrasts with your other furniture. Eclectic interior decor does work in log homes.
Where will you put your dog’s new bed? If it is in the great room or main living area, you might choose a furniture log bed made of wood or perhaps a sofa dog bed. Your dog’s daytime bed is simply a place for him to lounge, near the family.
Dog bed designers are even designing leather sofa beds and overstuffed luxurious dogs beds that look good enough for dog owners to sleep on!
If your dog’s bed is for night-time, it will probably be in your bedroom. In this case, you might choose a bed that looks like your own log bed.
Consider how your dog’s bed will look in the room where you intend to put his bed.
Comfortable Cabin Furniture for your Dog
Most important, is how your dog will react to her new bed. Some dogs like to snuggle down into a cave-like structure, like a coffee table dog bed. On the other hand, others are just fine with an open bed and nothing overhead. What does your dog like to do?
When buying a log bed frame, include a mattress for your dog. A log bed or wooden bed can get pretty hard without a soft mattress. You can buy a luxurious overstuffed dog bed, or you can add your own mattress to a log bed.
If your dog is older, a nice orthopedic mattress, a heated mattress or a memory foam mattress may help support those arthritic bones and joints. A good log dog bed will lend support to the mattress, as well.
A well-chosen bed will add to your rustic country decor, and it will keep your dog comfortable and happy.
